Diode-pumped 99 fs Yb : CaF2 oscillator

Florence Friebel (1) , Frédéric Druon (1) , Justine Boudeile (1) , Dimitris N. Papadopoulos (1) , Marc Hanna (1) , Patrick Georges (1) , Patrice Camy (2) , Jean-Louis Doualan (2) , Abdel [e-mail] Benayad (2) , Richard Moncorgé (2) , C. Cassagnes (3) , G. Boudebs (3)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Elsa
2 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique
3 POMA - Propriétés Optiques des Matériaux et Applications

We demonstrate the generation of 99 fs pulses by a mode-locked laser oscillator built around a Yb:CaF2 crystal. An average power of 380 mW for a 13 nm bandwidth spectrum centered at 1053 nm is obtained. The short-pulse operation is achieved thanks to a saturable absorber mirror and is stabilized by the Kerr lens effect. We investigated the limits of the stabilization process and observed a regime slowly oscillating between mode locking and Q switching.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Florence Friebel, Frédéric Druon, Justine Boudeile, Dimitris N. Papadopoulos, Marc Hanna, et al.. Diode-pumped 99 fs Yb : CaF2 oscillator. Optics Letters, 2009, 34 (9), pp.1474-1476. ⟨10.1364/OL.34.001474⟩. ⟨hal-00452060⟩